Crowds fascinated by area's partial solar eclipse

Linda Slaymaker of Clyde leans back near the Clyde community shelter to watch Monday's solar eclipse, which reached more than 80 percent of totality in Northwest Ohio.(Photo: Molly Corfman/The News-Messenger)Buy Photo

CLYDE - An intrusive moon slowly edged between the sun and the earth Monday, as hundreds of county residents gathered, put on their protective glasses and watched a partial solar eclipse.

Sandusky County missed out on a total eclipse, but curious onlookers got to see the sun obscured more than 80 percent at the eclipse's height around 2:30 p.m.

"It's just a big 'C' right now," said Linda Slaymaker of Clyde, as she laid back on her checkered blanket on a hill next to Clyde's community shelter, about 20 minutes before the partial eclipse's local peak.

She looked over at a group of ducks sitting quietly along the bank of a nearby creek, with one duck occasionally quacking loudly and flapping its wings wildly.

"It seems like they're kind of watching it, too," she said.

Most visitors to Clyde's viewing event had special glasses to protect their eyes against the eclipse.
One man brought his welding helmet from work to see the natural phenomenon, which started around 1 p.m. and took about three hours.

From left, Ethan Weis, 10, of Fremont, and Ty, 7, and Ella Schadwill, 9, of Vickery use special glasses to view the partial solar eclipse in Clyde.(Photo: Molly Corfman/The News-Messenger)

About an hour before its peak in Sandusky County, Carrie Harmon talked to a loud group inside the shelter about the eclipse.

Harmon, a fifth grade teacher at Green Springs Elementary School, said the partial solar eclipse would take about three hours. She said that during an eclipse, temperatures can drop 10 degrees or more as sharper shadows emerge on the ground.

Some animals might act as if it were night, she added.

The moon would cover at least 48 percent of the sun in the entire continental United States Monday, Harmon said, with that coverage at 83-to-85 percent in Clyde.

In 2024, a total solar eclipse with be visible throughout Sandusky County, Harmon said.

"I think seeing the sun's cornea and that diamond ring effect will be pretty spectacular," she said.

Outside, Rod Keegan of Clyde and his 15-year-old daughter, Madison, showed off their special glasses they got from the Clyde Public Library for the occasion.